Jameel Art Prize goes to Pakistani artist in Istanbul

The prize was presented to Mohammad at a ceremony at Istanbul’s Pera Museum on June 7. He received his prize from Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum Director Martin Roth and the previous winners of the Jameel Art Prize, the founders of the Dice Kayek brand, Ayşe and Ece Ege. 

The young Pakistan-based artist’s submissions was five intricate paper collage works, made by cutting individual words in Urdu and reconstructing them to create a new image, adding gold and silver leaf and ink. 

This year’s edition of the prize shone a light on the Turkish art scene. For the first time, the related exhibition was opened not at the V&A, the prize’s partner institution, but at the Pera Museum in Istanbul before going on international tour. 

What’s more, two of the 11 shortlisted artists in the show, which will continue until Aug. 14, are Turkish.

CANAN, who describes herself as a feminist artist, included two works - Resistance on İstiklal Street (2014) and Bosphorus Bridge (2014) - which use the visual language of the Ottoman miniature to depict scenes from the Gezi protests in 2013. 

The second artist, Cevdet Erek, works with sound, space and rhythm, and was recently chosen to represent Turkey at the 2017 Venice Biennale.